EDA launches first cyber defence pooling and sharing project

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has launched its first cyber defence pooling and sharing project, as part of a project arrangement signed by 11 Member States.

The contributing Member States are Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, with the Netherlands, Finland and Greece acting as co-leads.

The Cyber Ranges Federation project is aimed at increasing the availability of existing and emerging cyber range facilities and increasing the occupation rate and efficiency of cyber ranges and platforms.

The project will also mainstream and improve cyber defence training, exercises and testing at European level, EDA stated.

It is the first of four cyber defence projects launched so far under the EU pooling & sharing agenda.

The project will include a total of 30 work packages, which are divided between two spirals.

Work on the first spiral, composed of 19 different work packages, will begin under the leadership of the Netherlands.

Spiral one is expected to be completed within 18 months and the remaining packages will be completed after a review of the results of spiral one under the leadership of Finland in spiral two.

The Cyber Ranges Federation will also be supported by an EDA developed web-based Cyber Defence Training and Exercise Coordination Platform (CD TEXP), which is expected to become operational by the end of this year.

The cyber ranges can also be effectively employed in the areas of research as well as modelling, simulation and testing.